All posts tagged: New Zealand

Today is the 124th anniversary of New Zealand becoming the first country in the world to allow women the right to vote. September 19th is celebrated as White Camellia Day or New Zealand Suffrage Day, the first name after the emblem of the New Zealand suffrage movement: the white camellia. White Camellia Day is particularly exciting this year, as Saturday is a parliamentary election, early voting is already open, so lots of women I know are planning to vote today, and there is a reasonable chance that New Zealand will elect its third female prime minister. I’m going to vote on Saturday (Mr D & I have a tradition of walking to the polls together ((d’aww)) and I’ll be voting based on policy, not gender, but I still think it’s fantastic that New Zealand has already had two female prime ministers, and might have another. In honour of the elections and Suffrage Day falling so close together, and since there has been discussion of people going to the polls dressed as suffragettes, I thought I’d …

There was a lot of damage in New Zealand in the recent earthquake – some obvious, some that is only beginning to be apparent. My nearest and dearest came through relatively unscathed – but one place that is close to my heart was rather battered by the quake. The Katherine Mansfield House & Garden Museum on Tinakori Road, had a spectacular old-fashion garden, bordered on one edge by the neighbours old brick wall. The wall, plastered and painted grey, made a lovely backdrop for photshoots amongst plants mentioned in Mansfield’s writings. Unfortunately it came crashing down on the house in the quake, crushing the garden and damaging the house. The museum is raising money to remove the wall, repair the damage, and erect a new (earthquake safe) boundary wall. If you’ve ever visited the museum, enjoyed my photos taken there, or at a benefit talk I’ve given for the museum, or simply loved Mansfield’s writings, and feel moved to help repair the museum, you can: donate here on their Boosted page. Here are a few of …

It is bitterly, bitterly cold in Wellington today – it even snowed a little bit, which is extremely unusual in the capitol. It’s not going to be a great deal better for the next few days either, so I’m thinking longingly of summertime, and warm days. That, and all the blogging I’ve been doing about visiting other places, reminded me that I have a local visit from this summer which I’ve never covered. This is Wellington, centred around Wellington Harbour (Port Nicholson, or, to be even more accurate, Te Whanganui a Tara): Right in the middle of the harbour is an island: Matiu/Somes Island.* Prior to Western contact, Maori used Matiu Island as a place of refuge during war. Post-Western contact, the New Zealand Company took possession of the island. In 1866 the first harbour lighthouse in NZ was built there, and it was home to the lighthouse keeper and his family. The 1866 lighthouse was replaced circa 1900, and its replacement still stands on the island. In the 1870s the island was used as a …